L. Ron Altman: Why Dead Space 2 is a direct attack on Scientology

While there's no official connection between Dead Space 2 and Scientology, the …

The mythology of Dead Space is centered on a religion called Unitology. The church actively recruits members, solicits money from its followers, and worships an alien artifact called "the Marker," with an aim to bring about the "convergence" or "unification." It's a large part of a Dead Space world, which spans DVDs, games, and books. It's also uncomfortably close to another, real-world religion.

"We never really approach that discussion with the intention of poking fun at a particular religion, or sort of making a social statement about something that's going on right now," Wright Bagwell, the creative director of Dead Space 2, told MTV. "For us, Unitology's purpose in the story represents people's illogical thinking about things they don't understand. It was never really intended to be a jab at any particular religion." That particular religion is Scientology, and he claims most of us think there's a link because the "names are very similar." That's not exactly accurate; the latest game in the series presented a pointed, ongoing attack on Scientology and its leadership. Let's take a look.

Warning: the following feature will contain light spoilers concerning the Dead Space series.

The books

In Dead Space 2, players fight through a church dedicated to Unitology, complete with advertisements for multiple books with the teachings of the church. Images of these books are specific, with a very well conceived look in terms of coloring, fonts, and overall style. We've pulled a screenshot from the game to show you what we mean.

Feel free to click on the image to really dig into the details.

Scientology is unique in that there is no single, strong "bible" of teachings and wisdom. The words of L. Ron Hubbard are published in a series of books, lectures, and supplemental materials that are sold to Scientologists to allow them to study the teachings of the church.

From Scientology's official site

In 2009 Scientology rolled out an updated series of books and materials for sale, with great fanfare. "And so it is that all materials of the Scientology religion, containing the answers that all humankind has sought for centuries, are now available in many languages, many formats, and forever, for the benefit of all," the church announced. "Indeed, here is the long-hoped-for goal of total knowledge."

Scientology puts great importance on the sale of this material, just as Dead Space presents the Church of Unitology as heavily pushing its own books. Take a look at both screenshots to see the similarity in the aesthetics of the books in question, and the science-fiction styles of the covers. The look of Unitology was clearly lifted wholesale from Scientologist texts and products.

Unification

One of the core beliefs of Unitology is the idea of "unification," when everyone's bodies and minds will be brought together as one. It's talked about in the book, and at E3 religious tracts were handed out to the gaming press, with the lesson inside being to keep your body safe and healthy for the time of convergence. These are pretty specific words, but they must have been picked just because they sound like something that would exist in an established religion... right?

This is from a series of lectures and a book called "The Unification Congress." Here's how this material is described: "This book delineates the exact, but previously unknown, anatomy and formulas for perfect communication. The magic of the communication cycle is the fundamental of auditing and the primary reason auditing works." Auditing is one of Scientology's central rituals, which has a member of the church focus their attention on a practitioner, using a machine called an "E-Meter."

The detail in the name is uncanny, but again, look at the book here, and look at the Unitology texts presented in the game. The pattern is hard to ignore.